


Lihi Pilikia

by SBG



Series: Little Problem [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-18
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-11-02 04:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/364737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SBG/pseuds/SBG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny, tiny but no less fierce.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lihi Pilikia

**Author's Note:**

> Written on the fly for [this comment meme on LJ](http://dante-s-hell.livejournal.com/203103.html), though cleaned up a bit here. Prompt was from Cattraine: De-aged Danno fic. Steve is stuck with toddler Danny. A stubborn, suspicious toddler Danny who has no clue who this giant is and keeps trying to run away to 'Jewsee.'

H50H50H50

“You’re not gonna like this, _brah_ ,” Kamekona rumbled into Steve’s ear.

“I rarely do,” Steve said. “What do you have for us?”

“Guy’s a shaman, and from the sound of it he’s real _kolohe_. You do not want to get on his bad side.”

Steve’s stomach dropped. Danny, disbeliever of most things mystic, had already managed to put his Jersey foot in his Jersey mouth. Several times. He wondered exactly how he was going to approach this subject without being treated to a rant about the make believe, tell Danny if they wanted help from the guy, he was going to have to play nice. After the apartment _wailoa_ , true, Danny had been better about not disparaging cultural beliefs that didn’t jive with his own; that didn’t make the guy any less _haole_ to almost every one they came in contact with. He glanced from where he stood at the tech table into Danny’s office.

And watched as Danny disappeared in a literal puff of smoke.

“Shit,” Steve swore. “I gotta go.”

He ended the call with Kamekona and rushed to Danny’s office, his partner’s name on his lips. Steve didn’t know why he’d run into the office, as it was clearly empty. His shouts had alerted Chin, Kono and Lori, all of whom crowded behind him with weapons drawn.

“Boss?” Kono asked. “What’s going on?”

“Danny,” Steve said. The other gaped at him, confused. For a good long while, Steve was frozen to the spot, uncertain what the hell he was supposed to do. “Danny was sitting right there two seconds ago. Shit, shit, fuck.”

“Ah, you may want to watch your language,” Chin said.

Now wasn’t the time for an etiquette lesson. Besides, that was Danny’s deal, not Chin’s. Steve glared at Chin, rather wildly if Kono and Lori rearing back slightly said anything. Fuck it, his partner had just been whammied out of existence. He was allowed a little freak out time.

“What?” 

“Little pitchers,” Chin said calmly as he pointed toward the base of Danny’s desk, “have big ears.”

Steve’s ‘holy mother of fuck’ was fortunately drowned out by an in-stereo chorus of ‘awwww’ from Lori and Kono. He thought his reaction was far, far more appropriate, considering that tiny little naked feet that were undoubtedly attached to a tiny little naked boy poked out from under Danny’s desk and that was _not normal_ and _not okay_. He took a step backward, and then three unsteady forward, one for each set of hands that pushed him. He spared a moment to death stare his team, all hovering at the door. Apparently Kono and Lori’s ‘aww cu-ute’ reactions didn’t mean they had a mothering instinct. 

The tiny feet disappeared and there was a cry of distress from under the desk. Aw, damn it, it didn’t seem to matter how big Danny was (and he was pretty sure that had to be Danny under there), _Steve’s_ mothering instinct worked just fine. He noted the pile of clothes and gun, gun (he handed that swiftly to Chin), as he eased the chair back and peered into the desk well. It was love at first sight, all over again. In a totally different way to the way he felt about his Danny, of course. Not creepy. The little munchkin was definitely Danny – strong, stubborn set to the jaw, bright, bright blue eyes full of sass and fire and a shock of blond hair unruly and mop-like. He crouched down low, tried to make himself look harmless.

“Hey, buddy,” Steve said softly. He’d come a long way with kids, he thought. He could handle this pocket-sized version of Danny. “It’s okay, come on out.”

“Not right place,” Naked!Wee!Danny said, voice high and trembly. He crossed his fat little naked arms for a second, then unfolded them and poked Steve hard in the nose when he got too close. “NO. Don’t like. Wanna go home.”

Two years old, and Danny still automatically wanted off the islands. Figured.

“Aw, Danny.” 

Steve rubbed absently at his nose, didn’t notice the way Danny looked at him in fear when his name had been used. He pulled back, stood. This needed to get fixed. ASAP.

“I want Onakea down here. Now,” Steve said. 

When he turned his attention back to Naked!Wee!Danny, he found the boy taking a wee on his boots.

H50H50H50

Steve stood in the middle of the living room, in a complete physical and mental daze. The place looked like a tropical storm had hit it. In a manner of speaking, one had. It might have even been a hurricane. Hurricane Danny. It should have come as no surprise to him that Danny as a child was a holy terror. Too smart, too fast, too inexplicably stubborn and too good at vanishing in his quest to not be anywhere near Steve and/or the entire State of Hawai’i. That rat bastard Onakea hadn’t been able to tell them how long his little (no pun intended) curse was going to last, just that it was temporary and wouldn’t in and of itself cause Danny any harm.

Danny, as it turned out, was the biggest danger to Danny. Steve had managed to find the boy after only a few minutes each time he’d implemented a great escape, in some harrowing places. Somehow at the top of a very tall tree (Monkey was apparently a very apt nickname for Grace, if she shared her daddy’s frankly terrifying and unnatural skill for someone so little at climbing trees), out in traffic when Steve had been shopping for clothes for the little bugger (and didn’t he hate the disapproving, judgmental glares from strangers over that one), and in the trunk of the Camaro with a damned tear gas canister clutched in his chubby hands (yes, Steve _got it_ now about Danny’s apoplexy over weapons in the car) to name a few. 

Steve felt he’d had no choice, stemmed the panic as best he could at Danny’s latest disappearance (tenth, by his count but his brain was muddled with exhaustion by now so he couldn’t be sure), and made a call. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

_“I don’t think I understand the question,”_ Mrs. Williams said. _“Why do you need to know what Danny was like as a toddler? Is there something you’re not telling us?”_

Yes. 

“No, ma’am,” Steve said, holding back a sigh of frustration. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea. He was wasting time chatting with Danny’s parents while Danny was gone. Maybe what he should have done was call in a Maile Amber Alert, and wouldn’t Danny just love that when he was back to normal? “I’m just curious. You said he was a regular Houdini. Mind telling me more of his tricks?”

_“Maggie, tell him about the time during Mass,”_ Mr. Williams said. _“That was a good one. Remember that?”_

_“What, Don? Oh, yes. Oh, dear, that.”_ Mrs. Williams sighed. _“One Sunday when he was about two, he vanished from our pew without a single one of us noticing. It wasn’t until we heard a hullabaloo from back around the baptismal font that we realized he’d gotten away again, and had decided he wanted a bath. It was mortifying. And not one parishioner stopped him!”_

_“Nah, it was hilarious. Boy always liked the water, was like a fish.”_

His Danny? Liked the water? Fish? Steve’s brain reeled with that tidbit, ammunition he was sure to put to good use later, when … oh, shit. _Water._ A swirl of dread hit his stomach. Had he known that, he would never have brought Danny here. His whole backyard was a giant, tempting baptismal font, for fuck’s sake. 

“Oh, man, I … I have to go right now,” Steve said abruptly to the Williamses, tried not to let the horror bleed into his tone. Failed by the way alarmed, tinny squawks came from the other end of the line. He didn’t have time to ease anyone else’s mind. “Thanks.”

He tossed his phone onto the coffee table and made a mad dash for the lanai, and beyond it to the beach. Steve couldn’t see his pint-sized partner anywhere, and he was struck with intense terror that he was too late. 

“Danny!” Steve shouted into the surf. “Danny!”

Like the kid would answer him. Wee!Danny hated his guts, thought he was evil incarnate and was keeping him away from ‘Jewsee’ on purpose. Steve ran a hand down his face. He shouldn’t have left his damned phone inside. He needed his team. He needed the fucking Coast Guard. Steve spun to go make the calls, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of brightness at the far edge of his property. In the water. Oh, shit. 

“Danny,” he shouted again, and ran like his life depended on it.

It did. Danny was his life, and he couldn’t, _could not_ lose him. Steve reached Danny just as he was knocked over by a medium-sized wave and submerged. He got his arms around Danny as the water pulled them deeper, kicked toward the surface. Rather than being terrified at the dunking, Danny fought Steve (and fought him dirty) as he hauled the boy toward the shore. 

“No,” Danny cried. “No, no, lemme go.”

“Aw, baby, I can’t do that,” Steve whispered, and choked on a mouthful of the ocean. “I’m not going to do that.”

Danny sobbed and beat his fists against Steve’s chest, buried his face in his neck as if seeking comfort from the very person he thought was a bad guy. It about broke Steve’s heart, and he seriously doubted he was ever, ever going to use any of this against Danny when he returned to his usual, still small self. He bobbed in the water for a moment, just one-arm hugged Naked Again!Wee!Danny to him, hand cupping the back of his head.

“It’s okay, it’s gonna be …”

It was surreal how fast it happened, and without any dramatic puffs of smoke this time. One moment, Steve had his arms full of a tiny boy and the next, Danny, his Danny was back. Stubble tickled against his neck for a second, until Danny yanked himself free from Steve’s arms, sank below the surface for a moment and came up sputtering.

“What?” Danny croaked. “What the fuck?”

“Danny,” Steve said, somewhat stunned. “You’re you, you’re back.”

“Back? And naked in the water? Wha…?”

Steve swam forward, wrapped his arms around Danny and kissed him. He smiled into the kiss when Danny automatically returned it.


End file.
